5.31.2006

Ava Thursday: Self Portrait

This has got to be one of my favorites. Ava drew herself in class earlier this year. She's very proud of it. In fact, I decided to ask her this week what she wanted for me to put up on Ava Thursday, and this is what she chose.

Not only is she proud of it, but I am too. I mean, how could I not, you know? I love how she drew everything as it should be: brown eyes, brown hair with bangs, cute smile with pink lips, red shirt, sweet little nose. I asked her if they used mirrors in class and she said no. She then proceeded to tell me all about her classmates' self portraits and how Jack made his eyebrows like this, and how Nate drew his eyes like that—all the while showing me, hands gesturing wildly. This was done several months ago and I'm amazed by how much she remembers little details of the other kids' drawings. Ava pays attention to such details. More so than me at her age, that's for sure.

And speaking of which, I'm amazed by her talent on a daily basis. She's grown so much as an artist in leaps and bounds, it's mind-boggling to me. And she's always drawing, too. Oh sure, Ava will take the occasional break and play with baby dolls or Polly Pockets, but it doesn't last long. She'll get right back on a drawing jag and suddenly Andrea and I will find ourselves with piles of crayon drawings and marker drawings and pencil drawings in our laps for us to go through and look at.

When I look at this picture, I see a child who is headstrong and happy and full of life. I see a girl who's wide-eyed and taking it all in. I see my girl growing up. I see the future.

10 comments:

I know you don't remember how you were - but I do. And you and Ava are very much alike. You always amazed me with your attention to detail - how you could remember little nuances in a person's expression I had just met. You would say, "mama, his eyebrows did this (gesturing)." I would look at you with this "what is the world are you talking about" look, and you would repeat it and I would smile. "You're right,Ward. They did!" And then you would draw, draw, draw... And now it's the future.

i love this for several reasons. First, she has captured that cute little haircut so well. But second because of the details like the background color and the sweet little smile, which is just how she does it. i just keep looking at it because she really is so good.

Mom, you still look at me with that "What in the world are you talking about?" look on your face. Seriously, I'm so lucky to have a mom like you to have supported my interests back when I was a kid. Dad was too. I was the luckiest kid alive. And now, Andrea and I are trying to give Ava what I had as a young'un, and that's complete, loving parental support. Thanks, mom.

Jared, you should realize that I'm grooming Ava to be my assistant. Expect her to be listed on imdb.com soon.

Garth, I noticed that it was a 3/4 view as well-- very different from your typical self portrait by a 5 year-old!

Thanks for all your comments, guys. I always let Ava know what others out there in the Internet World are saying about her work. She loves for me to read the comments out to her.

I'm hoping that she continues to work in this vein, but Ava loves to draw cartoony characters in scenarios more than "realistic" stuff like this. I'm not going to push her-- she loves drawing so much that she'll bring her notebook around with her for several days straight. It gets kinda beat up, but I love that about her. She seems to enjoy drawing and the joy of looking at things all the time. That is something that cannot be taught.